Child of Eden

New on-rails-rhythm-shooter-thingy Child of Eden (from Tetsuya Mizuguchi the same guy who designed Rez, no less) is looking pretty darn nifty, especially with Kinect controls. Though quite how long you’ll last without your arms getting tired is quite another matter.

If you’ve never played or heard of Rez – it has to be one of the most beautiful and original games ever made. Originally for the Dreamcast, it has a HD remake on the 360 (via XBox Live Arcade), and is just great. Also, it has one of the easiest control schemes ever, meaning pretty much anyone can play it even if they’re not used to game controllers. You move the targeting reticule around (up/down/left/right), and hold down or hammer the fire button. If you’re holding the button down, anything that passes through the reticule is targeted (up to 8 things, or 8 shots on the same thing, or any combination), and when you release the button, up to eight shots shoot off and hit stuff. All perfectly timed to each levels unique techno/house/ambient soundtrack. Brilliant!

See? If Child of Eden is Rez 2.0, then I definitely want some :)

Also, and I only just noticed this – but I posted about the track California Soul by Marlena Shaw (or a remix thereof) the other day – and guess what the music in the latter half of the Rez video samples? I knew I’d heard it somewhere before! How’s that for serendipity?